Who is considered the owner of an industrial design?

Generally, the author 1 of an industrial design will be treated as the original owner of the industrial design.

However, if an industrial design is created in pursuance of a commission for money or money's worth, the person commissioning the industrial design will be treated as the original owner of the industrial design.

Where, in a case not falling within the above definition, an industrial design is created by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer will be treated as the original owner of the industrial design.

The original owner of an industrial design or the assignee of any interest in an industrial design may assign in writing to another person the whole or any part of his interest in the industrial design.

Where an industrial design, or the right to apply an industrial design to any article, becomes vested, whether by assignment, transmission or operation of law, in any person other than the original owner, either alone or jointly with the original owner, that other person or, as the case may be, the original owner and that other person shall be treated as the original owner of the industrial design in relation to that article 2.

In the case of an industrial design generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human author, the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the industrial design are made shall be taken to be the author.

References

"author" means the person who creates a design

"article" means any article of manufacture or handicraft, and includes any part of such article or handicraft if that part is made and sold separately but does not include an integrated circuit or part of an integrated circuit or a mask used to make such an integrated circuit